President Donald Trump on Friday, citing an “invasion” of drugs and criminals, declared national emergency, a move that would unlock billions of dollars of federal money to construct a wall along the US-Mexico border, saying the move was essential to prevent the country from “invasion” of illegal immigrants. Donald Trump took executive action unsatisfied with the funding in a bill passed by Congress. Donald Trump has defied fierce criticism to announce that he is using emergency powers which will enable him to bypass congressional opposition and seek to redirect billions of dollars in federal funds to build the wall on the US-Mexico border — delivering on a key election promise to his right-wing base.

He made the designation in an attempt to redirect taxpayer money from other accounts and use it to erect more than 230 miles of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border. But Trump anticipates a flurry of legal challenges that will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court. Democrats are trying to paint the action as evidence of a rogue president who has finally gone too far and vowed to stop him.

The money in the bill for border barriers, about $1.4 billion, is far below the $5.7 billion Trump insisted he needed to build the physical barrier. It would finance just a quarter of the more than 322 kilometres he wanted this year. “We are going to confront the national security crisis on our southern border and we are going to do it one way or the other,” Trump told reporters in the Rose Garden of the White House. “I am going to be signing a national emergency,” said the US leader. “We are talking about an invasion of our country, with drugs, with human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs.”

Trump argued that he has taken this path to speed up the process of building the wall. “I could do the wall over a long period of time. I didn’t need to do this, but I would rather do it much faster,” he said. Trump’s move is already drawing bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill and the opponents have already announced to legally challenge it. However, Trump exuded confidence that he will win the court battle. “Look, I expect to be sued,” he said bluntly. “Sadly it will go through a process and happily, we’ll win, I think.”

Trump went on: “I don’t have to do it for the election. I’ve already done a lot of wall for the election: 2020. And the only reason we’re up here talking about this is because of the election, because they want to try and win an election which it looks like they’re not going to be able to do.”

Trump’s announcement, which opens a new confrontation with lawmakers and creates risky legal peril, comes after he reluctantly agreed to a measure keeping federal agencies operational through September 30 — but without the funding he sought for a border wall. That deal caps a two-month battle over border money which Democrats are widely seen as having won.